“Goal by Maradona”: Eduardo Galeano Reads from Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Part Five

Is there any book more evocative of “the beautiful game” than Eduardo Galeano’s slim but buoyant paean to the players, goals, joys, and heartbreaks of a lifetime of soccer fandom? If you only know Galeano from his masterworks of radical, idiosyncratic montage—his Memory of Fire trilogy is the history of the Americas in searing anecdotes; his Open Veins of Latin America was Hugo Chavez’s gift to Obama—you’ll be wowed by Soccer in Sun and Shadow. (The title refers to the different sections of the stadium—the cheap seats under the sun’s glare, the more expensive in shadow.) In this exclusive reading for Fair Play, one of literature’s true giants guides us through the highs and lows of his beloved game, from the back-alleys of Buenos Aires to the boardrooms of the world’s richest clubs.

• Part Five. In the fifth of six excerpts for Fair Play, Galeano reads “Goal by Maradona,” in which he recalls the exploits of a 12-year-old soccer prodigy named Diego Armando Maradona.